Hickey.



M. ROBINSON. HICKEY.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 22. 1915.

1 208,01 5. Patented Dec. 12, 1916.

lnvenTor: Miner Robinson Aliy's.

MINER ROBINSON, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

HICKEY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 12, 1916.

Application filed June 22, 1915. Serial No. 35,685.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, MINER ROBINSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newton, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Hickeys, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawing, is a specificatiomlike characters on the drawing representing like parts.

This invention relates to hickeys such as areused in making the connection between electric light fixtures and outlet boxes, or for enabling wires to pass insulating joints in a conduit. I-Iickeys that are used for these purposes are now commonly made with a body portion having two opposite threaded ends, one of which is generally a male threaded end to screw into the outlet box, and the other of which is a female threaded end adapted to have the electric fixture screwed thereinto. Such hickeys are also provided with a lateral opening in the body thereof which communicates with the female threaded end and through which extend the wires that are inclosed within the fixture, so as to enable said wires to be attached to the wires leading into the outlet box. In some hi ckeys this lateral opening is made large enough to permit the wires of the fixture to be fished therethrough after the hickey has been screwed to the fixture, and this, of course, necessitates a body portion of considerable length, thus increasing the length of the hickey. Other hickeys now in use are pro vided with an axial passage extending therethrough and are formed with a lateral slot extending through the side from the terminus thereof to the lateral opening, the purpose of this slot being to permit the wires of the fixture to be drawn back through the slot into the lateral opening after the hickey has been attached to the fixture, thus avoiding the fishing operation. This construction has the disadvantage that the slot in the threaded end weakens the hickey so that if the threaded end is screwed to a part having a tapered thread, the hickey is likely to become cracked or bent out of shape. To obviate this difficulty it has been the custom to make hickeys of this type of malleable iron or steel in order to increase the strength thereof. A malleable iron or steel hickey is, of course, more expensive than a cast iron hickey owing to the difference in the cost of the material and labor.

Obviously, it is a desideratum that the cost of a hickey should be as small as possible. It is also desirable that a hickey should be as short as possible because the hickey, the insulating joint and other associated parts are located back of the canopy of an electric light fixture and it is often important to have the canopy project as little as possible beyond the face of the wall. A short hickey will, of course, permit the use of a smaller canopy than a long hickey will.

The objects of my present invention are to provide a novel form of hickey which has the above two desirable qualities and yet which has all the advantages required of a hickey.

My improved hickey is so constructed that it has a minimum length and, therefore, its use does not require a large canopy, and it is further so constructed that it can be made of cast iron without sacrificing any strength and can thus be made much cheaper than a hickey which requires to be made of inalleable iron or steel to provide suflicient strength.

Other objects of my invention are to improve generally hickeys, all as will be more fully hereinafter described and then pointed out in the appended claims.

In order to give an understanding of my invention I have illustrated in the drawings a selected embodiment thereof which will now be described.

Figure l is a sectional view through an outlet box showing an electric light fixture attached thereto and also showing my improved hickey; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section through the hickey and a portion of the fixture; Fig. 3 is a side view of the hickey; Fig. & is an end view; Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5, Fig. 3.

In the drawings, 1 indicates an outlet box of usual construction and 2 is a conduit leading into said box and carrying the wires 3.

a is the tubular part of an electric light fixture which carries wires 5 leading to the lamps carried-by the fixture.

I have shown at 6 an insulating joint of any approved type which is provided at one end with a male screw-threaded end 7 that is screw-threaded into the outlet box, and at the other end is provided with a screwthreaded socket 8 to receive my improved hickey.

My hickey is shown generally at 9 and in the embodiment of the invention herein illustrated it comprises a body portion 10 having threaded extensions at opposite ends, one of said extensions being herein shown as a male threaded portion 11 adapted to screw into either an insulating joint 6 or into an outlet box, if an insulating joint is not used, and the other extension being shown as a female threaded portion 12 adapted to have the electric light fixture at screwed thereinto. The hickey is provided with a longitudinal passage leading through the female extension and communicating with a lateral wire-receiving opening or passage 13 through which the wires 5 of the electric light fixture extend when the hickey is in use, said wires being connected to the wires 8 at the joint as usual.

In order to make the hickey as short as possible I make the body portion 10 only of such length as is necessary to accommodate a lateral opening 13 large enough to receive the wires but insutlicient in size to permit the wires to be conveniently fished therethrough. This construction brings the shoulder let at the end of the female threaded portion closely adjacent the inner end 91 of the male threaded portion and makes a body portion of minimum length. In order to permit the wires to be readily passed through the lateral opening 13 when the hickey is being attached to the electric light fixture at, I make the opening 13 with the extension 15 in the form of a groove formed in the side of the male threaded extension 11, said groove preferably having its side walls 92 converging toward each other to form a substantially V- or U-shaped groove, and being of progresisvely-varying depth to present a tapered, inclined or curved bot tom 16. I will also preferably make the groove 15 so that it terminates at or adjacent the extremity of the male threaded end or extension. The tapering or inclined bottom 16 of the groove serves to direct the wires through the opening 13, thus avoiding the necessity of fishing the wires through the lateral opening. The particular construction of the groove is such that its presence does not materially weaken the male threaded end so that said end can be screwed firmly into a tapered hole without danger of cracking or breaking the hickey. This result is secured by the particular construction of groove shown which is of full depth where it communicates with and gradually diminishes in depth as it approaches the terminus of the male threaded end 11 so that at said terminus substantially the entire strength of the solid male threaded end is retained. This prevents any possibility of said end becoming cracked or broken when it is screwed into a tapered hole due to the crushing strain of the tapered threads as is likely to happen when the male threaded end is provided with a slot as above described.

the opening 13 A hickey which has a central longitudinal passage and is provided with a slot through one side thereof leading to said passage is materially weakened by the formation of the slot. When a hickey is screwed into a tapered hole the crushing effect due to the tapered threads is in a diametrical direction and a hickey having a longitudinal passage and provided with a slot as above described is not adapted to withstand such crushing strain. The formation of a groove such as above described in a hickey does not, however, materially weaken it because the presence of the groove does not eliminate all the metal in a diametrical direction transverse to the groove, and the extremity of the male threaded end is solid along a diametrical line transverse to the groove. The grooved hickey such as above described is, therefore, to be distinguished from a slotted hickey which is formed with a slot lead ing through the wall of the hickey to a longitudinal passage. A hickey having a slot as above described has to be made of malleable iron, steel, or some other material which is strong enough to resist crushing strain above referred to.

My improved grooved hickey does not require the use of such material, but can be made of cast iron or some other less expensive material without sacrificing any necessary strength. A hickey can be made of cast iron much less ex'pensively than of malleable iron or steel, owing to the difference in the cost of material and labor, and I regard this feature which permits the use of the less expensive cast iron as an important feature of my invention.

My hickey, therefore, has two important advantages. The construction enables me to make a hickey of minimum length, as the body portion need only be long enough to accommodate a lateral opening of a size to receive the wire freely and without pinching when the hickey is in place. In the second place, this construction enables me to make the hickey of cast iron without sacrificing any necessary strength and thus I can use a satisfactory hickey at much less expense than where it is necessary to use malleable iron or steel to secure the requisite strength.

My improved hickey has the further advantage over those that are provided with an axial opening therethrough in that the terminus of the male end is closed or substan tially closed so that when the hickey is screwed into an outlet box, there is no opening left through the end of the hickey communicating with the tube l of the fixture carrying the conductors. Hence when my improved hickey is screwed directly into an outlet box, the opening through the box into which the hickey is screwed is sealed by the male end of the hickey. It will be noted that when the hickey is in use the groove 15 or extension of the lateral opening 13 is covered by the part into which the hickey is screwed, but this groove or extension is only useful while the hickey is being attached to the fixture 4 and before the hickey is screwed to the outlet box or the insulating joint.

\Vhile I have herein illustrated my invention as it might be embodied in a hickey having a male or externally-screw-threaded end, yet I do not Wish to be limited in the application of the invention to a hickey of this type as the principle of the tapering groove might be embodied in hickeys of other types. I do not, therefore, wish to be limited to the construction herein shown.

I claim:

1. A hickey having a body portion and opposite threaded extensions, a longitudinal passage extending through one of said threaded extensions and communicating with a laterally extending outwardly opening passage formed in the body portion and the other threaded extension.

2. A hickey presenting at one end an in- Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Washington, I). C.

ternally-threaded recess and at the other end a threaded portion, and having a wirereceiving passage communicating with the inner end of said recess and extending laterally through the side of the hickey between said threaded portions, said passage having an extension in the form of a groove formed in the last-named threaded portion, which groove terminates substantially at the end of the hickey.

3. A hickey provided at one end with an externally-threaded portion and at the other end with an internally-threaded recess, said hickey having a wire-receiving passage which communicates at one end with the recess, the other end of said passage opening through the side of the hickey and being formed partly in the externally-threaded portion thereof, said externally-threaded portion being at some point in its length solid along a diametrical line.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

MINER ROBINSON.

Commissioner of ratents, 

